Homeless Youth Essay

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, a homeless youth is one who is “under the age of 18 who lack parental, foster, or institutional care.” (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2008) Our youth are very valuable to how our nation will turn out. With that being said, one would think that the numbers of homeless youths would be low. However, this is sadly not the case. These kids are faced with many difficulties for being homeless, one of the biggest being education. Homelessness is highly linked to poor academic success for most students. The struggle for the homeless youth is that they do not have as easy of access to resources or opportunities to those kids who have homes and supportive families. This includes basic needs like clothing, food, water, sleep, good self-esteem, and parents who can truly help their kids out. (No Child Left Behind, 2004)This social welfare policy, the issues, and possible solutions are discussed in the three …show more content…
They did a good job of using specific examples within the United States of homeless students, cities, or schools who deal with homelessness. This made the problems more real and made me realize how fortunate I am to have a place to stay and the resources I do. They each made it clear that there were things that could be done to help out and that we have a role in that. This goes along with many of the core values of social work. The main values I see that each author touches on are service, importance of human relationships, social justice, and the dignity and worth of a person. (NASW) In other words, even though I wish the authors expanded their resources and the areas they discussed, I think they did a wonderful job with explaining the situations and providing us with ways to be a part of the